Newcastle Beat Sunderland Yet Again!

Mike Ashley, like most Billionaires, had their fortunes ravaged a bit with the massive economic turmoil opf 2008.

Mike Ashley – now worth £1.3B
But Mike seems to have bounced back nicely in his finances, and by all accounts his business SPORTSDIRECT.com is doing very nicely, thank you very much.

And even his other business – Newcastle United Football club – is also doing nicely, with the Magpies currently 4th top of the Premier League – I just love writing that.

And Mike Ashley has again been named as the wealthiest man in North East football, and the Football magazine FourFourTwo has ranked Ashley the 10th richest man in British football.

Top man is Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who owns Manchester City, with a fortune of £20B, followed by Alisher Usmanov of Arsenal with £12.4B, and then Lakshmi Mittal of QPR with £11.8B – so that’s why Joey went there.

Mike Ashley is listed with a total worth of £1.37B and he has increased his assets from a miserly £950M last year – so he’s a Billionaire again – and that’s good because it’s hardly nice being down with the poor people, like some of us.

Just a minute while I check my Piggy Bank – no – I don’t seem to have as much as Mike – my wife must have spent it all.

And Sunderland are once again the poor neighbors, with their American owner, Ellis Short, ranked in 15th place, with a fortune of only £1B, with the emphasis on only.

Former Newcastle striker Michael Owen, when he was fit and not playing for England, is also on the list and has risen to 66th place, although his worth has remained constant at only £40M.

Michael has also been known to make the Manchester United bench now and again, since he joined them in the summer of 2009, after Newcastle United had been relegated, and he flew away in his helicopter two days later.

Even though Michael is hardly ever seen playing in the Manchester United first team, he is said to earn around £2M a year from his Umbro contract, but he earns very little from the Red Devils.

That’s because he’s on a pay as you play deal, and since he very rarely plays, he cannot be earning much. Certainly his star has continued to fall since leaving Newcastle United in June of 2009.

Newcastle will be a very successful club if Mike Ashley can raise the value of the Newcastle United brand across the world, and since the value is often synonymous with how successful Newcastle are, we hope Mike can make the north-east club very successful indeed.

And come to think of it, we’re not making too bad a go of it so far this season under Mike Ashley, that’s for sure.

In February, Deloitte releases their annual revenue reports for the top European clubs, and the closer Newcastle can get to revenues of £100M – the better.

More money in his pocket, but where’s ours? Nah, we’re doing well atm, despite a turbulent window and pre-season. I think MA will count his blessing now that our attention is diverted to the pitch and not him. January will DEFFO be an interesting month to say the least. Would like to see a few pounds go Collos way tho 😉 Use your money right MA. Bring success to NUFC, we’ll all gain on it.

While the Toon have attacked down Gabriel Obertan’s right more than any other area (38%), unbelievably they have mustered just 1 of a total of 60 shots at goal (excluding blocked shots) from that flank. A massive 75% of Newcastle’s efforts have come from central areas, with Best and Ba the main culprits, while 14 shots have been fired in from Gutierrez’s left.

The right side of Newcastle’s team, backed up by Danny Simpson, has also conceded far more shots than the opposite flank. Obertan’s tendency to drift infield, and lesser effort when it comes to defending when compared to Gutierrez, could be attributed to his side’s total of conceding 21% of shots from opponents from the right. Though this doesn’t sound much it is the 3rd highest percentage of shots from this flank of any team in the league. In contrast, Pardew’s left flank concedes just 11% of the shots from opponents, which is the 3rd least in the division.

@NUFC FOR SALE – sorry, facts don’t lie. Yes, I like Obertan and believe he brings something new and will get better – but still I would like to see Marveaux given a chance/decent run. If that makes me a numptie – then I am one.

Facts don’t lie? Last time I checked Obertan seems to be the winger, Routledge and Barton couldn’t seem to do, Simpson is looking better now he doesn’t have to cover the right flank on his ones. Marv is a LEFT winger, can play right but is mainly LEFT. He is left footed after all.

@niffnoff: Jonas is right footed and plays to the left – what’s your point? Marvs scored two from a right wing position yesterday. That being said – I don’t mind him playing to the left, I just want to see him on the pitch for more than two minutes.

Great to know our call for Obertan to be dropped is now backed up by solid statistics. He is looking way under par and his only good game with glimpses of his ability came at Blackburn. The rest of the matches he has played very poorly.

In the game against Wolves we were constantly in the backfoot because each time we released the ball to Obertan, he runs flat into a bunch of Wolves players and loses it and we start defending again.

Obertan has to learn from Nani, how to run intelligent, penetrating runs. He has to be dropped immediately for Marveaux.

A reminder DJM Toon that there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Obertan is coming along just nicely and has already shown he has the potential to flourish with the right support – note the word support and get off his case. You and your moaning face kin p’ss the hell out of me

Just to sound in on the Obertan debate I think he needs to be dropped for Marveaux. Nothing against the lad and I think over time he’ll come good. Played very well vs Blackburn, every other game he’s looked pretty poor. Marveaux being left footed and playing on the right shouldn’t really be an issue, the likes of Downing and Adam Johnson do it very well. Plus with Jonas being right footed on the left they can swap flanks as and when they need to….

@7 – I’ll give you Routledge but you mean Joey Barton, as in our player of the season? How is Obertan doing better than him? And Simo hasn’t been any better with Obertan in front of him, he’s been really hit and miss all season.

I think Obertan has shown he has not got a lot of interest or maybe it is just the inclination in defending hence the imbalance in the right sided stats.

I am sure the club is privy to these stats as well so should be sitting Obertan down and asking (telling) him he has to buck up his ideas in giving Simpson a bit more cover when the opposition is pushing forward.

I personally trust in the management as they have a lot more stats than we have, they watch the players on a daily basis and have a far better idea of what should/could work. As for Marvaux what I have seen of him impresses me his first touch has looked exceptional, does not appear to waste the ball has a very good pass and an eye for an attack.

I can only think fitness is the reason he has not been getting more play time.

christ theres some right nobbers leaving comments obertan this marveux that start winging when the team slips to 18th ,jesus ,obertan needs time to settle in to regular football hes a bit hot n cold his defending is actually worrying and hes not as good as ginola going forward yet but hell come good for us ,just think where fourth in the league and we only have a rightwinger for half the match coz the other half he defo goes missing ,heres a prediction ,newcastle steal fourth because the french legion at the town are winners theyll all come good ,wait till abeid is valued at 50 million in a bout 2 years

Well done Mike Ashley?! Steady on, oh Fickle One’s! He has yet to show he has any ambition at all for this team and has countless transfer window failures that tell me that a leopard never changes its spots. January is yet another chance for him to seize upon a great opportunity to move this club forward by backing his manager instead of looking to make short term transfer profits.
Our magnificent start to the season is down to Pardew, a hardcore of players playing extremely well and us carrying a fair share of good luck (for a welcome change!). Of course, it’s still early doors and we may fall like a stone if we get injuries in our vulnerable positions but fingers crossed we can continue to do well.
Colo being signed up would be a welcome start to show we are abandoning our ridiculous ageist policy in favour of pragmatic, progressive team building.

In honor of two dedicated Newcastle fans, who lost their lives supporting Newcastle United, when their passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday July 17th, 2014 by rebels, as they were traveling to support the team in New Zealand.

We will never forget them.

Health Update - 1 August, 2015

I must admit I hold my breath every six months as I go through medical tests to measure my PSA count.

But good news early last week that the PSA count is still undetectable, and that means the prostate cancer is still under control, and there is no trace of cancer in the body.

Ed Harrison

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Thanks to reader Lewis Spiers, who has kindly set up the Fantasy League for our readers.

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It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes."

“It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city."

“It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”